


Studying With Grandpa

by PurpleWonderPower



Category: Rick and Morty
Genre: Family Feels, Family Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Help
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-02
Updated: 2019-11-02
Packaged: 2021-01-20 14:20:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 7,326
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21283115
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PurpleWonderPower/pseuds/PurpleWonderPower
Summary: Morty's bad grades are making him miserable, and even more so when his parents refuse to sympathize with him, so Rick decides to do something about it. Rated T for language. No violence, gore or sexual activity.
Relationships: Rick Sanchez/Morty Smith
Comments: 11
Kudos: 252





	1. Chapter 1

It had been a very bad day for Morty.

First he'd been splashed from head to foot with water by a car driving through a deep puddle on the way to school, then he'd been given a double detention for falling asleep during English class, Brad had slammed him into the lockers face-first during break after he'd caught Morty mooning at Jessica, at lunch he'd tripped over his own shoelaces and landed face-first into his rice pudding in front of everyone in the lunchroom, and now he was stuck in math class, staring down at a bunch of numbers, letters and symbols on a piece of paper with no idea what on earth any of them meant.

_If 5x = 1.15 × 10³, what is the value for x?_

It was the most impossible question Morty had ever seen. He had no idea what those little numbers in the air meant. He barely even knew the rules of how a decimal point worked. And it didn't help to look round at the rest of the class and see twenty-nine other hands scribbling away like there was no tomorrow.

_If 5x = 1.15 × 10³, what is the value for x?_

What did "x" mean, Morty wondered. Multiply? That's what he had thought it meant, but that didn't make any sense to the question.

_If 5x = 1.15 × 10³, what is the value for x?_

"Time's up, class!" Mr. Goldenfold called up from the front, "Hand your papers in!"

There was a rustling of paper as everyone held out their worksheets for Mr. Goldenfold to collect. Morty sighed and put his chin on his desk as all the papers were collected and brought to the front of the class. At least this day couldn't get any worse.

"And now, it's time to hand out everyone's mid-term report cards!"

Spoke too soon.

...

Morty stared miserably down at his report card as he tracked down the driveway to the front door of his house. He had an F in English, Physics, Chemistry and French, a D- in History, Maths and Biology, and the less said about his althetics results the better. It was a stroke of luck if he didn't come home with two black eyes after a dodgeball game.

The worst part of it was that both his parents had to sign his report card this term, and one thing was for sure: they were NOT going to be happy with his results.

"Hey, sweetie!" said Beth, she and Jerry coming into the room as Morty opened the front door and came into the house.

"Oh! H-hey, Mom! H-hey, Dad!" exclaimed Morty, nervously, quickly hiding his report card behind his back.

"How was school today, son?" Jerry asked.

"O-oh, i-i-it was great!" Morty said, smiling nervously, trying to repress the sweat running down his brow, "W-w-we had a real great time. Everyone was really nice to me, as usual, and there—there was a quiz in class."

"How did you do?" asked Beth, smiling.

Morty gulped. "Great!" he said, with a nervous smile, "Really great! My grades are really coming along! If—if you don't mind. I'm gonna go up and—and get a start on my homework!" He sidestepped around them, keeping his report card hidden behind his back.

"That's great, son," said Jerry, with a smile, "Good luck!"

"Thanks, dad!"

Morty nodded enthusiastically and gave a nervous smile as his parents left the room. He waited until they were out of earshot, before looking back at his report card. Nothing but blocks of red and grades that said he was a failure. And now he had to show it to his parents, which would only make him feel a thousand times worse. Morty's eyebrows narrowed, and he tore his report card into tiny strips, before shoving them in the kitchen trash and going upstairs. Out of sight, out of mind.


	2. Chapter 2

"So, Jessica, I heard you and Brad got back together," Tricia Lange said, as Jessica opened her locker.

"What?" said Jessica, in surprise, "No, no, we were just hanging out. I'm not going that far...yet."

Morty sighed longingly as he watched the girl of his dreams close her locker and head off down the hallway with her two friends. She was still just as beautiful as the day he'd first laid eyes on her. Sadly, she always seemed to be out of his reach. He closed his own locker and was just about to head down the school hallway towards his next class when he heard a familiar voice say his name.

"Morty Smith, a moment of your time, please?"

Morty turned round to see Principal Vagina coming down the school hallway towards him.

"Oh, h-hey, Principal Vagina," Morty stammered, nervously, "W-what's up?"

"Mr. Goldenfold informed me you didn't turn in your report card this morning," said Principal Vagina.

Morty stopped dead.

"As you know, it was extremely essential that both your parents sign your report card this term, as I see it necessary that some changes are made to improve your grades, and in order to do that, your parents needed to read your report card."

"Oh, uh..." said Morty, gulping, sweat running down his brow, "I think I might've, uh, misplaced it somewhere at school. I'll—I'll try and find it today, I promise."

"There's no need, Morty, I already emailed your parents another copy."

Morty's jaw dropped in horror! "W-what!?"

"This school prides itself on giving kids a proper education," said Principal Vagina, "I've asked them to make an appointment with me tomorrow afternoon so we can discuss your grades. Good luck in your next class."

Morty began to shake, beads of sweat running down his face as Principal Vagina turned away and headed down the hallway.

_Holy shit, holy shit, HOLY SHIT!_

...

Butterflies fluttered in Morty's stomach as he walked up the driveway to his house that evening. His face was pale and sweaty, and his throat felt dry as a bone. He couldn't imagine what he would have to face when he opened that door and entered the house. It felt like the time he and Rick had gotten marooned on Purge Planet during the Festival; that at any second now, his life would be over.

When he reached the front door, he shied away from the doorknob. For a moment, he considered just going into the garage, finding Rick's portal gun and moving to a new dimension where he didn't have such bad grades. He sighed. No. He knew that was ridiculous. He took a deep breath and pushed open the front door. It would all be over soon.

"Morty?" Jerry appeared in the doorway and spotted Morty coming inside. "Good. I'm glad you're home. There's something very serious we need to talk about!"

Morty gulped. "Oh, great," he said, nervously, "Lemme guess. It's about school, isn't it?"

"Yes. And it's funny, though," said Jerry, putting his hands on his hips, "From what your principal had to say, your progress in class doesn't sound quite as great as you described it yesterday!"

"Well, yeah, I mean," said Morty, his eyes darting left and right, nervously, "I-I may have exaggerated j-just a little, I mean—"

"Exaggerated!?" Jerry exclaimed, "Your school report is appalling! Your attendance is less than twenty-five percent, you've failed in practically every subject on your timetable, and every single one of your teachers claims you have absolutely no attention span whatsoever!"

"That's not true!" cried Morty, desperately!

"Don't interrupt me!" Jerry scolded, "Not only is your lack of work at school creating serious problems for your grades, but you also lied to your mom and me about them! What do you have to say for yourself!?"

"Look, I'm sorry for lying, OK!?" Morty exclaimed, hysterically, "I just didn't want to have to talk about them!"

"Well, your principal and I had a talk," said Jerry, frowning, "And we both agree that you can't be allowed to show this degree of effort without punishing you."

"W-what!? That's—that's not fair!" exclaimed Morty, "I don't understand any of the stuff at school! A-a-and you guys said it didn't matter what I got as long as I tried my hardest!"

"Well you could certainly be trying harder than this!" exclaimed Jerry, angrily, holding up Morty's abysmal report card, "Don't think you get a free pass on flunking your schoolwork just because you're autistic!"

That punched Morty right in the soul. He was silent for a few seconds, before his eyes started welling up. "W-wow. That's—that's really great, Dad!" Morty said, his eyebrows narrowing into a scowl as his eyes brimmed with tears, "It's really great to know that that's what you think of me! I bet that's not what Grandpa Rick would have said if I came home with bad grades!"

"Don't you dare start comparing me to your grandfather, Morty!" Jerry scolded, "He's overstepped more bounds in this house than anybody I've ever met!"

"Oh—oh yeah!?" Morty found himself shouting, "Well—well, at least Rick spends time with me! At—at—at least Rick actually tries to help me! W-w-when was the last time you tried to help me!? And—and—and not just telling me to do better!"

He shoved past his dad, almost knocking him off his feet! He hurled his schoolbag aside to the bottom of the staircase, before running through the house to go and find his grandpa.

Rick was in a particularly vindictive mood these days, and everybody knew why. Ever since Morty's parents had gotten back together and Jerry had moved back in, Rick had lost his patriarchal position as man of the house, and also once again had to put up with Jerry's prolonged idiocy every day. His temper during his and Morty's adventures had also gotten considerably shorter. But at least he was the one person in the world who got Morty. And anything was better than staying here right now.

"R-Rick?" Morty said, his voice shaking as he opened the door to the garage.

His grandpa was at his workbench, using a screwdriver on a contraption while taking long swigs from a bottle of whisky. "Oh, hey, M—eeurgh—orty," Rick belched, capping the bottle of whisky and shoving it back in his inside pocket as Morty came over, "What do you want?"

Morty rubbed his arm, embarrassedly. "C-c-can we go on an adventure?" he asked, tears welling up in his eyes, "Like, r-right now?"

"W—eeurgh—ait, what?"

"I wanna go on an adventure!" Morty whimpered, grabbing Rick's lab coat in his hands, tears spilling down his cheeks, "Anywhere you want! I don't care! I-I-I just wanna go on an adventure! Right now!"

"Wh—uurrp—oah, slow down, Morty!" exclaimed Rick, pulling Morty off him, "Wha—eeurgh—t's got you all worked up!?"

"Nothing," Morty sniffled, wiping his face, "I-I just had a tough day at school. Can we go now!?"

"A—uurrp—alright, Morty, if you insist." Rick picked up his portal gun and shot open a bright green portal into the centre of the garage.

"Great!" Morty exclaimed, as he wiped away the tears from his face, his face breaking into a smile, "Let's go!" He jumped through the portal, followed by Rick.


	3. Chapter 3

Four and a half hours later, a considerably battered scientist and his grandson stumbled back through a portal into the garage, their clothes torn and dirty and their faces cut and scratched, but their arms full of plutonium.

"Phew!" Rick exhaled, dropping the plutonium on top of his workbench and collapsing onto the chair, "How about that, huh? G—eeurgh—uess those Plutonians aren't so keen on tourists, am I right? Ha ha!"

He stuck a hand into his lab coat and took a long drink from the bottle of whisky he always kept in there.

"Oh yeah!" Morty gasped, staggering over to Rick and dropping the plutonium, "Totally!"

He was completely winded, and his body ached all over, but it felt brilliant. There was nothing like a classic Rick and Morty adventure to take his mind off things. He could barely even feel the scratches. The years of going on adventures with Rick had made him almost numb to the pain.

"We did a good job, Morty," said Rick, with satisfaction, patting the pile of plutonium they had collected, "I'll be able to do all kinds of sciencey stuff with these babies!"

"Yeah!" said Morty, with a smile, "Good for you, Rick!"

"So, now are you gonna tell me why you were in such a state earlier?"

Morty froze. "Uh..." he said, nervously, his eyes darting left and right unconvincingly, "I-I don't know what you're talking about. I-I was just stressed. They—they gave me a lot of homework tonight." That was technically not a lie.

"You think I was born yesterday, Morty?" said Rick, flatly, clearly not buying it, "You stumbled in here a wet mess. Don't think your grandpa's gonna believe that's just cause of some dumb homework assignment."

Morty rubbed his arm. "Well, I mean, it's really tough homework," he said, weakly, "And—and there's a lot of it, you know?"

Rick's unibrow raised.

"Aw, fine," said Morty, shamefully, "That...and my dad read my report card."

Rick snickered! "Seriously?"

"IT'S NOT FUNNY, RICK!" shouted Morty, angrily!

Rick was taken aback. For a moment, he couldn't think of anything to say. Normally, the scientist would have scoffed, but the tone of his grandson's voice told him that it wasn't a laughing matter. Morty had never shouted at him quite like that. He didn't just sound annoyed. He sounded devastated. Even more so when the his eyes wavered down to the floor and started to well up.

"So, uh," Rick said, uneasily. He had never been so good at being empathetic. "N-not so happy with your results, I'm guessing."

"Yeah, no shit!" Morty exclaimed, tears dripping down his cheeks, "And now everybody's getting at me for it! And it's not helping! My—my dad said I'm just not trying hard enough. But I don't know how to try any harder!"

Rick sighed, deeply! "Morty, you're not telling me you're actually going to listen to that, are you?" he said, irritably, "Adults just say things like that cause they hope they can shame their kids into being better at everything. It's really not a big deal."

"But—but," Morty sniffled, "He said that—that—that I just use my autism as an excuse to not do any work!"

That had quite a different effect.

"He WHAT!?" bellowed Rick, standing up from the chair with such ferocious velocity it sent the chair flying to the ground!

Morty jumped and took a step back.

"Are you serious!?" Rick spat, "No, let me rephrase that! Are you FUCKING serious!?"

Morty sniffed and nodded, rubbing his arm.

Rage boiled up inside Rick. Sure, the scientist knew he had the tendency to act like a complete asshole himself, but he drew the line at insulting a child's ASD. This was unnacceptable!

"Alright, you listen here, Morty!" he said, "Any brain-dead, fucked-up piece of shit who tries to tell a kid they should feel ashamed of themselves just because they're autistic had his head stuck so far up his ass he could see what he had for breakfast! I can tell you that from personal experience!"

"W-well it's true though, isn't it?" said Morty, trembling, "I'm not good enough at anything! All—all those other kids just whizz through it like it's—like it's nothing, and—and they get straight As, and—and they get noticed, and—and all I've got is—is a shitty report card and a—and a whole bunch of extra homework that I'm just gonna flunk too! I'm useless!"

"That's Rickdiculous, Morty!" Rick exclaimed, waving his hands, "Y—eeurgh—you—you think any of those—of those—of those dumb sons of bitches at your school c—can—can drive a fucking spacecruiser, or—or escape high-tech galactic security, or—or—or figure out how to destroy parasites that fuck with your memories!?" Flecks of spit sprayed from his mouth as he raved, and Morty could hardly breathe from the thick alcoholic stench of his breath. "Those—those telepathic little pieces of shit had me cornered, Morty! What do you—what do you think would've happened if you hadn't figured it out!? You—you think any of the kids at your school coulda—coulda—coulda done that!?"

Morty sniffed, and wiped his tear-soaked cheeks. "I—I don't—I don't know," he said, shakily, "I—"

"The answer is NO, Morty!" Rick exclaimed, furiously, shaking Morty's shoulders with sheer velocity, "Why'd'you think you're my little helper!? If I wanted a dipshit as a sidekick, I'd just bring your dad along on every adventure! You've gotta stop taking yourself for granite! I mean, granted!"

"Rick? Morty? Is that you?" a voice suddenly sounded from the hallway. Rick and Morty both looked round to see Jerry open the door to the garage, "Oh, you're back?" he said, "If it's OK with you two, I'd like to have a little chat about—"

"Get the FUCK outta here, Jerry!" Rick shouted, making Jerry jump back in alarm, and quickly hurry out of the garage, slamming the door behind him.

There were a few moments of silence as Jerry's footsteps faded away, and Rick dropped to his knees, breathing deeply after his rant.

"You're not stupid, Morty," he said, in a much gentler tone, putting a hand on Morty's shoulder, "I know I always say you are, but I never mean any of that shit I say. You're not stupid and you're not useless. You've just been given some shitty support from your parents, your school, and your grandpa. This isn't your fault."

"It doesn't matter whose fault it is," said Morty, sadly, looking down at the floor, "My parents think I'm a failure. Everyone thinks I'm a failure. Even—even I think I'm a failure!"

Rick pressed a finger against Morty's lips, then pulled him in for a gentle hug. Morty felt fresh tears brimming up in his eyes as his head pressed against Rick's chest, wetting his shirt. He wrapped his shaking arms around his grandpa, finding comfort in the familiar scent of alcohol that wavered around him. Rick very rarely hugged him. He must have been pretty concerned for Morty if he was being this tender.

"Have you told anybody at school about your problems?" Rick said, in a soft whisper, only loud enough for Morty to hear.

"Mmhmm," Morty nodded, his eyes screwed shut and his hands trembling as he hugged Rick, "But nobody helps me. All they do is tell me off and set me extra homework."

"I bet that doesn't help much, hmm?" Rick said, softly, holding his grandson tight in his arms

"No." Fresh tears welled up in the boy's eyes, and he buried his head in Rick's chest. "I-I just wanna do well," Morty said in a small voice, holding onto Rick's lab coat as if his life depended on it, "Otherwise—otherwise everyone just thinks I'm a loser. But I can't. I-I don't know how. I can't answer any of the questions in class. I-I can't complete any of the homework they give me."

"Ssh." Rick pressed Morty closer to him. They stayed like that for a few minutes, and Morty began to feel a little more at ease from the embrace. He had stopped shuddering, and was now relaxing against Rick's chest, breathing heavily, while a hand stayed atop his head, raking through his hair.

"Listen, Morty." Rick drew back so they were face-to-face, his hands on Morty's shoulders. "Go get yourself cleaned up, get on your PJ's, and we'll tackle that homework together. I'll run you through the strategies, and make sure you know how to do the stuff they're setting you up with at school. Huh? How about that?"

A small smile spread across Morty's face, and he wiped his eyes. "R-r-really?" he asked, "Y-you'd do that for me?"

"Sure, Morty," Rick said, with a comforting smile he rarely wore, "I don't wanna see you upset with yourself. Now go get washed up, and I'll come upstairs in a minute."

Ten minutes later, Rick and Morty sat down at Morty's bedroom desk with a pencil and paper, and turned to the first question in the homework booklet.

_Q.1. If 3x = 1.365 × 10³, find the value of x._

"Aw, geez, Rick," said Morty, nervously, "Th-this stuff's really—really hard. I-I don't know if—if I can—if I can do this."

"Re—eeurgh—lax, Morty," said Rick, "I said we're gonna get your homework done, we—eeurgh—'re gonna get your homework done." His expression softened. "It'll get easier as we go. Tr—eeurgh—ust me."

Morty took a deep breath and let it out slowly, before giving a weak smile. "OK," he said, nervously, "Let's—let's do it."

_Q.1. If 3x = 1.365 × 10³, find the value of x._

"So, what do these little numbers mean?" asked Morty, pointing at the question.

"Those are called powers," said Rick, pointing at the little 3 above the 10, "They mean how many times you multiply the number."

"Huh?"

"OK, basically, i—uurrp—if you see the little number three after the ten, that means you multiply it three times. Ten times ten times ten. Three times."

"So that'd be a thousand?"

"Exactly."

"Huh," Morty said, thoughtfully, examining the numbers on the sheet, "OK. That makes sense. So what about this?" He pointed to the x in front of the three. "Doesn't that mean "multiply"?"

"That's n—uurrp—ot a multiplication symbol," explained Rick, "It's an x. Letters are just used as substitutes for numbers you're supposed to work out. Th—eeurgh—ink of it as an empty space in a problem."

Morty still looked a little confused, so Rick wrote out the equation differently. He circled a space in the middle after the three and a multiplication symbol.

"It's just the same as a normal math equation, except we don't know what one of the numbers is," he said, pointing at the space, "That's the x. Aka, the number we need to work out. To put it simply, three m—eeurgh—ultiplied by something gives us this answer." He pointed to the number on the other side. "We just need to work out what that something is." He tapped his finger on the empty space again. "That's all a letter means. A number we don't know."

"OK," said Morty, slowly nodding, determined to remember all this, "So how do we work it out?"

"That's easy," said Rick, "F—eeurgh—irst we need to work out the answer to this half. We know the three above the ten gives us a thousand. What's this number multiplied by a thousand, Morty?"

"Uh..." Morty looked at the problem for a second, and silently counted how many places he needed to move the number up, "One thousand, three hundred and sixty-five?"

"Right. All you gotta do now is do the problem backwards. If three lots of x multiply to make up that number, you've gotta put that number at the beginning, and divide it by three."

Rick showed him how to rearrange the problem on the piece of paper.

"You always flip the mathematical operations when you're reversing a problem," he explained, picking up Morty's calculator from the desk top, "Multiply becomes divide, minus becomes plus, and so on." He typed the new equation into the calculator. "And awa-a-a-a-ay we go!" He pressed the answer button.

"Wow..." Morty realized, a smile breaking out on his face as he saw the answer, "That—that—that actually makes a lot of sense!"

"Why don't we try something easy first?" suggested Rick, "Then once you're comfortable with the formulas, we can try the rest of the questions."

"OK," agreed Morty.

Rick wrote down a few much simpler one-step questions on the spare piece of paper, and for a few minutes, they worked on those. He took his grandson through each one, familiarizing Morty with the rules of algebra and indices, until Morty said he was ready to try the next question in his homework.

"You think you know all the rules pretty well now?" Rick asked. Morty nodded. "Nice. Why don't you try this one on your own?"

"OK." Morty said, smiling, before looking down at the question.

_Q.2. If 4.6 × 10² = 5y + 30, find the value of y._

He took a deep breath. "O-OK," he said, slowly, "So—so the little two means—means the ten becomes a hundred. That's right, isn't it, Rick?"

"Good, Morty," said Rick, approvingly, "Now what do you do next?"

"Uh..." Morty moved his finger along the problem, "Work out this side." Multiplying by tens was easy; he wrote 460 down on the paper. "Then..." he said, slowly, moving his finger to the other side, "Then I add thirty?"

"Subtract thirty," corrected Rick, "Remember, you have to do everything backwards, including the operations."

"OK," said Morty, picking up the calculator, "So if four hundred and sixty minus thirty makes five lots of something." He carefully typed the equation into the keypad. "Would the answer be..." He pressed the answer button. "Eighty six?"

"Alright, way to go, little buddy! Now you're getting it!"

"Wow!" Morty exclaimed, a smile breaking out on his face, "I-I-I did it!"

"You're a bright kid, Morty," Rick said, ruffling his hair, affectionately.

"Thanks, Rick," said Morty, with an embarrassed smile. Then his smile faded. "My dad sure doesn't think so, though."

"Your dad can lick my balls, Morty," said Rick, flatly, "His head's so full of shit he couldn't tell a pinecone from an ice-cream cone without tasting it first. I thought everyone in the family knew that."

Morty had to grin. "Yeah, you're right," he said, suppressing a laugh, "Knowing my dad, he'd probably call the America Education Board and threaten to sue them for making math too difficult for him."

They both laughed for ages at that.

"You wanna go over a few more?"

"Sure."

For the rest of the night, the two continued to work on Morty's math homework. The questions got harder as they got through the paper, but as Morty started to understand how the formulas and techniques worked, he started to enjoy it. Working on his homework with Rick was actually really fun. It was obviously no surprise how much his grandpa knew about math, but it was a surprise how much easier it was with his help. Whenever he didn't understand something, Rick would talk him through it, and it was so much better than the way it was taught in class. The teachers at Morty's highschool never tried to help him when he didn't understand something. They'd just belittle him for getting it wrong and set him extra homework. And as for his parents, Beth loved him, but she always treated him as second to Summer, and the only thing Jerry ever said was that he wasn't trying hard enough. This was better in so many ways. He didn't have to work with someone breathing down his neck, putting pressure on him to be faster, so he felt much more relaxed than he did in class or with his parents.

He was sorry when they finished the last question. He liked working with his grandpa.

"Well wh—uurrp—adda you know, Morty," said Rick, folding his arms with a satisfied smile, "T—uurrp—told you we could do it."

"This was great, Rick!" Morty said, happily, picking up his finished homework, "I-I-I never knew math could be so much fun!"

Without warning, he wrapped his arms around his grandpa and hugged him, tightly. Rick was surprised for a split second, before smirking and hugging him back.

"Now you'd better get to sleep, Morty. It's w—eeurgh—ay past your bedtime, and your grandpa's got work to do in the garage. C'mon, I'll tuck you in."

They both got up from the desk, and Rick turned off Morty's bedroom light. Morty curled up on top of his bed, his head nestling comfortably on the pillow. His eyelids felt like lead. Rick made sure he was tucked up nice and warm under the covers, then leaned down and kissed him on the forehead.

"G'night, Morty. I'm proud of you. You worked real hard tonight."

"H-hey, Rick?" Morty said, as Rick opened the door to leave Morty's bedroom.

Rick paused, holding the door ajar. "Yeah?"

"Thanks. For—for being the coolest grandpa ever."

Rick smiled. "Anytime, Morty. See ya tomorrow, y-you little...piece of shit." He gave a salute with two fingers, then closed the door behind him.


	4. Chapter 4

"Alright, kids, today it's no more Mr. Nice Guy!" Spit sprayed from Mr. Goldenfold's mouth as he addressed the class in his typical hardcore manner, "I know you all think you've been getting the easy deal, but that ends now! Y'all've got some serious stuff comin' atcha today!"

The whole class gulped, including Morty.

"It's time for the test! Get your pencils out, and get ready for summa the real stuff!"

The papers were passed out, one to each student. Morty gulped as his paper was placed on his desk. He picked up a pencil and wrote his name at the top.

"Alright! Your time starts—NOW!"

There was a rustle of paper as twenty-nine hands turned to the first page. Morty took a deep breath and exhaled, before turning over to the first question.

_Q.1. If 5x - 7² = 36, find 4x + 24_

Morty chewed the end of his pencil. As he stared at the piece of paper, his eyes began to wander, and the numbers started to float around, mixing up. For a moment he was tempted to just forget it and fantasize about having sexual encounters with Jessica like he usually did during math class, but shook the thought out of his mind.

You can do this, Morty told himself, forcefully, Grandpa Rick's counting on you.

He looked back at the question, ridding his mind of any other thoughts.

_Q.1. If 5x - 7² = 36, find 4x + 24_

What had Rick said? The letters were just substitutes for numbers. Numbers he needed to work out. And to do that, all he needed to do was—

Morty's eyebrows narrowed in determination. He grabbed his pencil and scribbled down the problem backwards, rearranging the numbers and reversing the operations just like Rick had shown him last night.

_36 + 7² = 5x_

That made things much easier. Now, the little numbers in the air. They said how many times to multiply a number. Two. That meant he had to multiply seven twice. Seven times seven...was forty-nine. Thirty-six plus forty-nine...

Morty closed his eyes for a moment as he concentrated on adding the two numbers, then wrote the number 85 on one side of the equation. Now he had to work out x. Rick had said that if a letter was next to a number, it always meant "multiply". Which in reverse, meant he needed to divide. So if five lots of x made eighty-five, then...

He picked up his calculator and punched in 85 / 5. The number 17 popped up on the screen. OK, if x was 17, then what was 4x + 24? He typed the equation 4 × 17 + 24 into the calculator. A grin clicked onto his face, and he wrote 92 in the answer box.

Next question.

_Q. 2. If 2y + 3³ = 77, find 4y_

Three nines were twenty seven. Seventy seven minus that was fifty. That meant y was 25. Morty wrote 4y = 100 down on the paper then went onto the next question.

_Q. 3. 4x + 1 = 25 - 2x_

Now it was getting more complicated. But Morty remembered the steps Rick had taught him of how to work out this kind of question. He cancelled out the 2x and added it to the left equation, then subtracted one from both sides, giving him 6x = 24. Dividing 24 by 6 was easy. He wrote x = 4 down on the paper.

A smile slowly began to form on Morty's face as he worked through the test. He got more and more confident as he did each problem one by one. The problems just seemed to do their own thing, and flowed so much more easily than—well, ever. That hopeless block in his mind that always occurred when he looked at math problems seemed to have just disappeared. There were a couple of questions he didn't understand, and a few that were a little too complicated, but most of them involved the kind of formulas that had been in his homework last night, which he knew. The classroom clock ticked as time went by, thirty pencils writing down on thirty pieces of paper, and for once, Morty felt like the rest of the kids in the class. He felt like someone who really knew what they were doing.

He had just finished writing the answer to the last question when the loud, shrill sound of the school bell rang through the air!

"Time's up!"

Morty and twenty-nine other hands put down their pencils. His smile was wider than ever as he watched his test get collected. For the first time in his life, he was feeling good about school.


	5. Chapter 5

Beth and Jerry pulled up their car into a parking space outside Harry Herpson High School.

"I'm really worried about Morty," Beth said, as they got out, "I always knew he had trouble at school, but I had no idea his marks were this bad. Is it possible that we're the ones to blame for this?"

"W-what?" exclaimed Jerry, from the other side of the car, "Honey, what are you saying? We don't have any control over Morty's school time."

"I just don't feel like we've been playing an active enough role in Morty's life," asserted Beth, as she and Jerry walked down the sidewalk, "Maybe there's something important that we've been missing. Like maybe he doesn't get enough encouragement from us."

"We give him plenty of encouragement, Beth!" Jerry said, as they opened the door and entered the school, "If Morty is getting bad grades, it's down to his lack of effort! You don't see any of the other kids here doing this badly!"

"Morty is autistic, though," Beth pointed out.

"That doesn't mean he doesn't have to work just as hard as the other kids!" Jerry asserted, as they walked down the corridor, "And it certainly doesn't help that your dad's always yanking him off into another dimension. We need to start taking this seriously!"

Beth sighed. "I know that," she said, "Let's just go to this meeting and see what we can do. I'm sure it won't be that bad."

"Mr. and Mrs. Smith, welcome," said Principal Vagina, approaching them, "Come along to my office so we can discuss your son's grades."

...

"Rick!"

Morty slammed open the front door, his face glowing with pride! He ran through the house as fast as his legs could carry him, calling Rick's name!

"Rick!" exclaimed Morty, hurling open the door to the garage with a loud SLAM!

"Aah!" Rick jumped! "Morty!" he exclaimed, "Dude, you gave me a fright!"

"Rick, look!" exclaimed Morty, stumbling over to him, dragging his schoolbag along with him, "Look! Just look at this!" He fumbled inside his schoolbag, whipped out his math test and shoved it in front of Rick's wide eyes! "Look!"

"Eighty-five percent!?" exclaimed Rick, looking at the score on the cover of the test. His face split into an instant grin! "Rikki-tikki-tavi! What did I tell you, Morty? You did it!"

"I couldn't'a done it without you, Rick!" Morty said, in delight, throwing his arms around his grandpa and hugging him tightly, "Thank you, thank you, thank you, THANK YOU! You're the best!"

"Ha ha ha!" Rick laughed, lugging Morty up into his arms, spinning round and collapsing onto his workbench chair, both of them laughing! "Not even the terrors of teenage highschool can take down Rick and Morty, am I right!?" He wrapped Morty in a headlock and gave him a rub on the head.

"I don't know what I'd do without you, Rick," Morty said, squeezing him tightly, "If you hadn't stepped in to help, I probably would have just given up!"

"Heh. Well, thank goodness for me, then, eh?" said Rick, affectionately, hugging his grandson back, "I'm proud'a you, Morty. Now!" He stood up abruptly, and Morty jumped off his lap. "What do you say we go on a classic Rick and Morty adventure to celebrate!?" he said, grabbing his portal gun. "Unless there's any—uurrp—bits of homework you need help with?"

"Nah! I didn't even get any homework today!" said Morty, looking chuffed with himself. "Although...we do have a science test coming up on Thursday, and I'm a little bit behind on study."

He bit his lip and looked up with hopeful eyes and a cheeky smile, making Rick smirk.

...

"Well," sighed Beth, as she and Jerry opened the doors and got out of the car, closing the doors behind them, "That could have gone better."

"Now do you see what I mean?" Jerry asserted, as they walked up the sidewalk.

"Yes," admitted Beth, "I do."

"Well then we need to take this a step forward!" said Jerry, "And that starts with no more sci-fi adventures until his grades improve!"

"Come on, Jerry, don't you think that's taking it a little too far?" Beth said, uncertainly.

"We haven't been taking it far enough!" exclaimed Jerry, "Our son already has a serious learning disability, and your father always pulling him out of school to go gallivanting off on space escapades is doing nothing to help him! Our number one priority has to be Morty's schoolwork!"

Beth sighed. "You're right," she said, defeated, "Come on. I think we need to have a chat with Morty and my dad about this."

"Yes!" exclaimed Jerry, enthusiastically, throwing both his fists up, "Brilliant idea!"

They reached the end of the driveway, and Beth turned the key in the lock, before pushing open the front door and stepping into the house, "Summer, Morty, we're ho—huh?"

Rick and Morty were sitting together at the kitchen table, with several books and assorted papers spread out across the surface.

"Alri—eeurgh—ght, Morty," Rick was saying, holding a bunch of flash cards in his hands, "What happens during the first stage of the cell cycle?"

"The cell makes a copy of each of its forty-six chromosomes and pulls one half to each side!"

"Nice! What's the difference between an animal cell and a plant cell?"

"Plant cells contain chloroplasts, vacuoles and cell walls, and animal cells don't."

"Correct! What's the equation for the size of a magnified object?"

"The size of the magnified image divided by the magnification of the lens!"

"What the hell?" Jerry said, incredulously, making Rick and Morty look over at the sound.

"What's going on in here?" said Beth, in astonishment, as she and Jerry entered the kitchen.

"Oh, hey, sweetie. I'm j—eeurgh—ust helping Morty with some study," Rick replied, "He's got a big test comin' up, and he's t—eeurgh—otally gonna ace it. Aren't you, you little smartass punk?" He ruffled Morty's hair affectionately.

"You bet!" said Morty, smiling.

"Awww," Beth said, tearfully, putting a hand on her heart, "Dad, that's so sweet!"

"Wait, what? Since when do you help Morty study for school?" said Jerry, suspiciously.

"Oh—oh, gee, Jerry, I don't—I don't know," said Rick, sarcastically, his unibrow raised, "M—eeurgh—aybe since I realized my grandson was getting shit support at both school and home for his bad grades and never actually gets a shred of help besides—eeurgh—discrimination for his ASD and threats of sueing NASA."

Beth clamped a hand to her mouth to suppress a giggle.

"Nice swing, Captain Obvious," said Jerry, scowling at Rick.

Rick took a swig of alcohol. "Th—eeurgh—ere're times when shooting straight comes in handy, Jerry," he said, coolly, putting his flask back in his pocket, "Now, if you'll excuse us, Morty and I have some w—eeurgh—k to do."

"Well, we certainly don't want to interrupt you," Beth said, smiling, "Come on, sweetie, let's leave them be."

"But, honey—" Jerry started.

"Now," Beth said pointedly to Jerry, taking his hand and pulling him out of the dining room.

"Oh, and for the record, Jerry," Rick said, idly, as they went, "I don't wanna be, you know, that guy, b—uurrp—ut you might wanna think about how you treat your kid. Cause your tactics are r—uurrp—eally not working."

Morty stifled a giggle.

"What was that, Beth?" exclaimed Jerry, when they were out of earshot, "What happened to talking about the meeting?"

"Sweetie, you saw what was happening in there," Beth said, with a wide smile, "My dad's really helping him. I don't think I've ever seen Morty so happy with himself." Then her smile vanished. "And have you been berating Morty about being autistic!?"

Jerry blanched.

...

"Alright, Morty, here's a tricky one," said Rick, looking at the next card in his hand, "Name all the sectors of the human heart, in the chronological order that the blood passes through them!"

"OK...uh..." Morty counted on his fingers, "Vena cava, right atria, right ventricle, pulmonary artery...uhhhh...capillaries...pulmonary vein, left atria, left ventricle, and...ummm...what's the last one? Uhhh..." His eyes wandered for a moment or two, before he remembered. "Aorta."

"Jesus Christ!" Rick said, with an amazed expression, "Where did you learn to be so good at this, Morty!?"

"Aw, geez, I think you already know that, Rick," said Morty, smiling.

Rick gave him a knock on the shoulder. "Well, either way, it looks like you're not such a bad student after all."

"Well, I-I had a good teacher!" Morty said, smiling and looking down at the biology book they were working from, "It—it just seems so much easier now! Things actually make sense! I could—I could never get my head round any of this stuff at school, but it's—but it's just so much better doing it like this!"

"Y—uurrp—ou've just got a different mind, Morty," said Rick, with an idle smile, "Kids like you don't learn well under pressure. And your school's a bad environment for that. I—uurrp—actually had a similar problem when I was around your age."

"Really?" said Morty, in surprise.

"Oh yeah, for sure," said Rick, "Except, you know," he added, quickly, "I'm a—I'm a—I'm a genius, so it wasn't—it wasn't that difficult. You wanna go over the cards one more time, or d—eeurgh—'you think you've got it all so far?"

"I think I'm good," said Morty, smiling.

"Well, then it looks like we're finished!" said Rick, plopping the cards down on the table with a satisfactory smile, "Nice job, Morty! You wanna start the next chapter?"

"Uh huh!" said Morty, smiling, "Totally!"

Rick turned the page of the biology book onto the next chapter, while Morty picked up a pen and a fresh card. "Hey, Rick?" he said, shyly.

Rick looked over at him. "Yeah?"

"This is really fun," said Morty, shyly, "Studying with you. Can we do this again? Like...all the time?"

"Sure thing, Morty," said Rick, affectionately tossing an arm round Morty's shouders and rubbing his head with his knuckles, making him laugh, "But we can't forget about our adventures, though! It's like I always say. Life isn't life unless you're living it shooting through a black hole at light speed with a dozen aliens on your tail!"

"Definitely not!" said Morty, smiling.

"And we've gotta leave some time for Interdimensional Cable, too, don't forget! You wanna grab some pizza and go for some Ball Fondlers after this?"

"Oh yeah! Ball Fondlers rule!"

**THE END**


End file.
